Stage coaches and horses are serious business for Wells Fargo (with slideshow and video)

While the Gold Rush and Old West are long gone, Wells Fargo & Co. is still deep in the stage coach and horse business.

More than 150 years after its founding, the San Francisco-based company remains one of the nation's largest employers of coach drivers and horse handlers. The main difference is that now it is for show, not dough.

The owner of 140 former branches of Wachovia Corp. in Alabama pays the freight for 21 stage coaches and their teams around the country -- full replicas of Old West carriages, complete with horses, drivers and wranglers. Supporting them are a series of ranches and trucks which move the animals, gear and people across the country, where they appear at charity events, parades and Old West revivals.

It is serious business for Wells Fargo, the nation's fourth-largest bank. Supporting the teams and ranches is a full corporate department with three Wells Fargo employees who administer and coordinate what a former company chief executive called "a visual representation of our values."

One of the teams will be in Birmingham today for a debut visit to the Magic City. It is a typical event for driver Dave Helmuth and his team, an appearance at Children's Hospital at 10 a.m., to give rides to folks, and to be there when the company announces contributions to nonprofit organizations.

Helmuth is a typical Wells Fargo coach driver. A professional horseman, Helmuth has been training and showing the animals since his Iowa childhood. He now owns a ranch in Georgia with 30 quarter horses. An outside contractor of Wells Fargo's, Helmuth makes about 200 appearances a year in his historic stage coach, which usually include his bulldog, Jack.

"When people see it, you can tell they are seeing something for the first time," Helmuth said of his coach, horses and costume. "We face nonstop waiting times for rides everywhere we go; everyone wants to be part of it when they see it."

The 21 coach teams make as many as 1,000 appearances a year. Helmuth alone has ridden the coach in nine Rose Bowl parades and is scheduled to make it 10 in January. A coach appeared in the inauguration parade for President Richard Nixon.

When Wells Fargo was founded, horses and coaches weren't an affectation. They were how the job was done, and the job then was transporting people, cash, securities and business correspondence across a growing, pre-industrial nation. Where the rails ended, the stage coach took over, and over time, Wells Fargo came to operate the largest empire of coaches, horses and way stations.

"It was like the system of Greyhound bus stations," Helmuth said. "And it was a special honor to be a driver back then; you were responsible for your passengers and your freight and your coach."

Wells Fargo doesn't make much of it now, but it also meant facing danger from troublemakers. The term "riding shotgun" came from those days, and referred to the second man on the coach, who was often armed with a double-barreled 10-gauge.

The coaches themselves are properly called "Concord Coaches." The type was first manufactured in Concord, N.H. Wells Fargo hires a master craftsman in South Dakota to make new coaches and fix older ones. A new one takes almost a year to build.

The Western variation of the Concord Coach that Helmuth drives is much larger than the original, and when pulled by a four-horse team, requires precise helmsmanship. The trick, Helmuth said, is to "aim high" -- pick your turning point early and turn slow, because the lead horse can be up to 40 feet away from the driver's seat.

As far as marketing goes, Helmuth said he is no expert, but that his horse sense tells him Wells Fargo is on to something.

"This isn't a little bumper sticker or a banner," he scoffed. "We bring it. This is an iconic image of America, and of strength, and of heritage."

Helmuth said he can operate his team with as few as two other people on the road, but four makes it easier. The teams travel with the horses in tractor trailers, and are on the road a lot, staying in motels and boarding the horses at stables along the way. Helmuth used Inanda Stables in Shoal Creek for his inaugural trip to Birmingham, where he pulled into town at about 4 p.m. Monday night after a weekend of events in Lexington, Ky. First thing: care for the horses.

"They get a shower a day," said Helmuth, 52. "I still love washing my horses."

Next are appearances in Montgomery and Mobile, as Wells Fargo rolls out its corporate name after leaving the Wachovia brand intact for almost two years after it acquired the North Carolina bank with the assistance of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Attendees at the Children's Hospital event shouldn't expect any speed theatrics; Helmuth said he keeps it to a relaxed trot for passenger rides and parades. He said he reckons the working coaches of the Old West went at about 12 mph during normal travel. A fast team, he said, can do 30 mph for short periods.

"We call it 'flying out the gate at 98,'" Helmuth said. "We do it every time at our arena events as we are introduced to the audience. The people love it, I love it and the horses love it."Join the conversation by clicking to comment or e-mail Hubbard at rhubbard@bhamnews.com